


A Different Kind of Family

by BirdwingWillow



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Gotham (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Mentions of Sexual Assault, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Sex, Teen Romance, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-11-14 12:23:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18052445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BirdwingWillow/pseuds/BirdwingWillow
Summary: You met Jerome when you were both 16 and you clicked instantly. You had a common interest: murdering your parents.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a while ago and figured that I may as well post it. I hope you guys like it!

My idiot parents bickered quietly behind me whilst we waited in line at the circus. Well, I say bickered. My father was threatening to have my mother killed by his gang and my mother was blackmailing my father using his long list of murders against him. And I just stood there. Let’s just say my family life isn’t exactly conventional. It didn’t affect me that much though. To tell you the truth, it probably should’ve affected me more having people gunned down in front of me and everything I’d ever owned being bought with dirty money but c’est la vie.  
Of course, it used to hurt but now I just couldn’t be bothered to deal with it anymore. So what if my entire life was spent an inch away from the GCPD? So what if I had no friends because everyone knew me as a killer’s daughter. People were overrated anyways. At least I used to think that.  
We moved forwards in the line until we stood in front of the ticket booth where a pale boy about my age with bright red hair stood. He looked at me with mischievous eyes and a smile that could only be described as quirky when he saw my parents arguing behind me.  
“You alright there, Buttercup?” he whispered.  
“Just perfect,” I retorted with a wry smile while handing him our tickets.  
“Enjoy the show” He laughed.  
I smiled softly and walked into the circus tent. I could feel the boy’s eyes on my back as we walked through and I couldn’t help but feel a little giddy as we sat down. I guess a little attention every now and then from someone my age was sort of nice.  
The show was pretty average: clowns, magicians and trapeze. I couldn’t help but feel trapped in the crowded tent next to clusters of people. And it didn’t help my mood that the only reason we were here was so my father could meet with one of his cronies after the show. God, I hated my father. Sometimes I fantasised about bashing his skull in with a frying pan and seeing him lying on the kitchen floor with blood seeping out of his head. Sometimes I considered doing it for real. Was that normal? Probably not. I hated my mother too. She was always running off so she didn’t have to be in the house when my father was doing his dirty work yet felt no sympathy about leaving me there by myself. Alone. In a house full of murderers, rapists, and thieves. I hated the both of them.  
A quarter of the way into the show and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I hated the noise and the chaos and having to sit so close to my family for long amounts of time. I clambered outside into the fresh air as the sun was starting to set and the air was becoming chilly. I decided to walk around the tents for a while since my parents wouldn’t bother to notice I was missing.  
As I was walking around with my hands stuffed deep into my pockets, I heard the faint sound of yelling. I crept forward to see the red haired boy from before being screamed at by an older woman with a glass bottle in her hand. Suddenly, she struck the boy over the head with the bottle before rushing back towards the circus tent; the boy cried out in anger and pain before flipping the woman off with a raging smile and stalking back towards the caravans surrounding the circus.  
“Hey wait!” I stuttered and hurried after him.  
I ran up towards him only to see him grinning maniacally as he walked. He turned sharply to face me and I saw a trail of blood running from his forehead where the woman hit him.  
“What was that about?” I asked him softly.  
“Oh you know how mothers are!” he exclaimed, “Always nagging their sons and hitting them with bottles of vodka.”  
“Your mother seems like a bitch.” I muttered.  
“Yeah” he replied with a grin, “She’s also the resident circus whore but what else is new?”  
He laughed bitterly to himself and then louder as if to share his hatred for his mother with the world.  
“If only murder was legal” he grinned and I honestly couldn’t tell if he was joking or not but I burst out laughing.  
He looked at me curiously but I just shook my head with a grim smile and said, “If only. My parents would be the first to go.”  
That’s when he really started to smile and I couldn’t help but grin back. This was far more fun than sitting in a stuffy circus tent.  
“So, what’s your name, Gorgeous?” he asked with a signature grin.  
“Y/n l/n” I replied, “You?”  
“Jerome Valeska.” he declared, “I think you and I could be very good friends y/n.”  
And we were. For the next few weeks, I came to the circus every weekend and we’d sit together. I told him about my father and he told me about his mother. He entranced me when he spoke. It was like he was trying to put on a show when he told me stories about his mother’s one night stands beating him and how he used to think his father would come back and save him. Sometimes we’d talk about our want to murder our parents. Sometimes we’d talk about running away. Sometimes we’d just sit together in silence. Although, Jerome never liked to do that last part much. He liked to perform.  
“I will if you will.” he whispered.  
“What?” I asked wearily.  
“I’ll kill my mother of course.” he responded “I have a hatchet. I’ll kill my mother if you kill your parents.”  
I thought about it for a minute. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted and we’d definitely both be better off. I wanted to. I really wanted to actually. I couldn’t even imagine being guilty about it either. The only thing holding me back was fear of getting caught. And even then I knew enough people who the blame would fall on considering the number of enemies my father had. I nodded slowly at Jerome and we both burst into fits of giggles at the happy thought.

I arrived home to find my father finishing a meeting with his goons. His buddies left the room and then it was just him. He didn’t acknowledge me and instead headed for the kitchen. He reeked of alcohol. I followed him into the kitchen and smiled sweetly when he looked at me.  
“Hi Daddy,” I said.  
He nodded in my direction before opening the fridge to grab a beer. Wow. And I thought that killing this bastard would be mildly harrowing.  
“Daddy, can I tell you something?” I asked quietly.  
He nodded whilst rummaging through the fridge. I could tell he wasn’t listening. I’d made a whole fucking speech and he didn’t even have the decency to listen to last words he’d ever hear. Bastard. Who cares? I could save my speech for someone who had the brain capacity to listen. My blood boiled as I pulled a wok out from one of the cupboards near me.  
There was no point in creeping. He was too busy making a sandwich to notice his daughter about to murder him. I hit once. Hard. He cried out in shock and turned to see me. His expression turned to one of surprise as I hit him again on the forehead and he fell to the ground with blood trickling from the wound. He tried to protect himself with his hands and bellowed at me to stop but I was far beyond reasoning. I hit him again and again and even when he stopped moving I kept beating him with the pan until every inch of the floor was splattered in his blood.  
I dropped the wok and took off any clothing that could leave blood stains. I’d have to burn it later. I washed the blood off the wok as well as I could and put it away. I couldn’t stop from shaking as I looked into my father’s lifeless eyes. Honestly, I felt no remorse. He deserved it for the way he treated me and for the way I’d seen him treat others. I smiled at the sight of his mangled corpse. Now it was time for mommy.  
I went upstairs and changed into a pair of old pyjamas and waited for my mom to come home from wherever she’d run off to whilst my father plotted. I sat, curled in a ball and grinning wildly, for at least 2 hours before I heard the front door slam shut. I’d decided to be a tad more lenient with my mother and instead of beating her to death; I figured I’d simply shoot her. She was nowhere near as cruel as my father. At least she hadn’t let the bad things happen to me. I heard the sounds of my mother’s stilettos clicking on the marble floor. I heard her clicking all the way up the stairs and then clicking into her bedroom. My hands were clammy around the gun as I crept into her room.  
“So Mom, where’ve ya been?” I asked softly.  
She turned and saw the gun in my hands.  
“What’s going on?” she demanded.  
“Well, since I already killed Dad, I figured it would be unfair if you didn’t die as well.” I drawled.  
The shock on her face almost made me laugh until it turned into a sudden look of self-preservation. She took a slow step towards me and raised her hands.  
“Hang on, y/n” she begged, “Stop please. Why are you doing this?”  
“Why? What the fuck do you mean why?” I screamed, “Why would I not want to kill you when you left me in a house with that monster? That drunk, stupid, awful monster who invited his sadistic friends over to hang out because why not? He made my life hell and you just let him.”  
My hands trembled and my eyes watered but I felt a smile crawl its way onto my face.  
“He’s already paid. And now it’s your turn, you bitch.” I growled.  
The deed was done and I couldn’t stop grinning. My hands were still shaking from adrenalin as I phoned the police and told them that I’d found my mother shot and my father bleeding out on the kitchen floor. A couple detectives came to find me in fits of fake tears. I’d planted enough evidence and testified so that they arrested my dad’s best friend who incidentally happened to be the man who’d tried to touch me up when I was 13. No correlation there, of course. I tried to tell my father about what he did but he was cared more about keeping his right hand man happy than he ever cared about me. Typical.

Once the police left with the bodies, I practically skipped over to the circus to see Jerome. He was sitting on the steps on his caravan when I told him what had happened. He laughed wildly and we decided to take a walk through the trees rather than discuss details out in the open.  
“I blamed it on Satanists!” he exclaimed with a cackle and I laughed along with him.  
I just couldn’t get over the thrill of it all. I skipped around like a mad woman and Jerome held my hand while I danced around him laughing. It felt as if I’d thrown a massive weight off my shoulders. It was uplifting and we couldn’t help but feel infinite in our freedom.  
Jerome pulled my hand towards him so that I was standing millimetres way from him and he smiled widely. I leaned in so that our noses were touching and he quickly closed the gap between our lips. It was soft at first since we were both unsure of what we were doing but his confidence made up for his lack of experience as he slipped his tongue into my mouth. It was warm and wet and I felt like I was on a separate plain of existence. He gripped me tight as if I’d disappear at any moment as his tongue explored my eager mouth. His hand moved up my sides slowly before resting on my cheeks as he kissed me. I ran my hands through his silky red hair and giggled into his mouth as I felt something brush against my stomach.  
“I think your little friend is getting excited” I laughed softly.  
“Maybe we should let him have his playtime?” Jerome inquired boldly.  
I licked my swollen lips at the idea and he grinned.  
“Jerome Valeska!” someone yelled.  
Jerome’s face turned sour as he turned around to see a cop facing him. Suddenly, his expression morphed into one of fake mourning. I hid behind him to hide my smile at his sudden change in behaviour.  
“Have you found out anything about my mother’s murder, sir?” he asked quietly with a solemn expression. I could hear the forged tears in his voice. He was brilliant.  
“Yes, actually” the officer replied, “Detective Gordon wants you to come down immediately”  
Jerome nodded sadly and followed the cop. He turned back towards me and gave me a wicked smile and a wink before disappearing.

Little did either of us know that that was the night he would be sent to Arkham Asylum for murdering Lila Valeska.


	2. Chapter 2

I was made to live with my aunt in Blüdhaven whilst Jerome was sentenced to Arkham for life. I’d never wanted to kill someone more than when I found out that James Gordon had sent Jerome to an asylum. I hated him. I was ready to rip someone’s throat out. But my aunt would barely let me out of her sight. She kept trying to connect with me and got me to join a bunch of extra-curricular activities like cheerleading and chess club. It felt like I was living my life in a boring blur with no will to do anything. The one person who I’d connected with was gone. Locked up for killing a drunken whore whose life meant nothing to the world. My aunt may have meant that I never had the time to kill humans but I got my thrills from slaughtering bunnies and other animals that no one particularly cared about. Perhaps I should thank my aunt for getting me to become a cheerleader though. It did come in handy soon.  
I remember sitting at the back of the school bus with the rest of the GCHS cheerleaders. I was sitting alone since I didn’t tend to get along with other people. I’d become something of a recluse since Jerome had been sent to Arkham Asylum. I’d closed in on myself; I was trapped in a mind-numbing cycle of nothingness. I lived the majority of my life in apathy. It really did surprise when they chose me to be a cheerleader. I’d tried to forget about Jerome but there were bad days when I wished that I’d been sent to Arkham with him. At least we would’ve got to spend some time together even if it was in a prison for wackos.  
We were on our way back from nationals when the bus suddenly stopped. A truck also stopped in front of us and a bunch of men in white clothes climbed out. I have to say, I wasn’t really bothered until one of them jumped on to the bus with a gun. I recognised him in an instant. I drank in his perfect features after having been away from him for so long. He was gorgeous. And he was even more eccentric than before. His grin had the other morons screaming whilst it had me entranced. It felt like every memory of him came back to ten times stronger. I froze.  
He told his buddies to cuff the girls and he shot the bus driver. Everyone started screaming and crying as blood splattered onto the windshield. I probably could’ve said something as his buddies started to cuff me but my head started to fill with doubts. What if he was resentful that I didn’t get caught? What if he’d found someone else? A million questions sent my stomach into tight knots as he walked down the isle of the little bus. I’d kill that son of a bitch if he’d forgotten me. Had he?  
“I want you all to know,” he announced, “that this was a very difficult decision for us. It was between you and a senior citizen bingo party.”  
His voice was deeper than before and he had a dark look in his eyes. He had his gun pointed at this bitch, Kristen that always copied my English answers. It’s fine though because I pushed her down the stairs after and she broke her leg. She squealed like a baby and inched away from Jerome Valeska. My Jerome Valeska.  
He continued to monologue and walk down the little bus isle. He really was giving us a good performance. If I didn’t know him, I would’ve been scared shitless. His grin was intoxicating and his eyes were wild. And then he laid eyes on me. And he strode right towards me.  
“Y/n”  
I grinned up at him breathlessly and he just stared. I bit my lip in anticipation; waiting to see what he would do.  
“Boys, get these cuffs off of her.” he called.  
His ‘Boys’ looked at him in confusion.  
“Who’s the boss?” he theatrically whispered to them.  
“You are” they muttered.  
“Great!” he growled, “Then get these cuffs off my girl before I beat your heads together.”  
They came over with a key and unlocked me. As soon as my hands were free, I launched myself at Jerome and he held me back tight.  
“Missed you” I whispered softly and gave him a peck on the cheek.  
“Missed you too, Buttercup” he grinned.  
The cheerleaders momentarily paused their terrified screaming to give me incredulous looks. Meanwhile, Jerome’s buddies just muttered angrily to one another in confusion.  
“Everyone” he announced, “I’d like you to meet my good friend Y/n. She’s the only person out of you who’s not going to be burned alive!”  
He cackled and I laughed with him as I the girls started to cry and plead more. Jerome grabbed my hand and skipped to the front of the bus.  
“Gimme an ‘O’!”  
The cheerleaders just murmured and cried more so I grabbed Jerome gun and shot the roof of the bus a few times. Jerome started laughing wildly before repeating himself.  
“I said, Gimme an ‘O’.” he ordered.  
I cackled wildly as the terrified cheerleaders chorused back ‘O no” before Jerome started spraying them with what smelt like gasoline. This was definitely going to be fun. He grabbed my hand again as he strolled out of the bus and grabbed a lighter from his pocket. I couldn’t stop laughing or shaking or grinning and the other men looked at me like I was insane (which was unfair considering the fact that they had all just broken out of an asylum but whatever). Jerome started flicking the lighter as the cheerleaders really started screaming but nothing happened. He tried a few more times but I didn’t seem to work.  
“This is so embarrassing” he said and I smiled wryly at him. “Anyone got a light?”  
One of the other escapees handed him a lighter excitedly. He reminded me of an excited puppy. Pathetic. That’s when I heard the sirens and that bastard James Gordon stepped out of a car with his gun.  
Jerome grabbed me and held me in front of him and I instantly knew what to do. I started sobbing and screaming like the other cheerleaders and the cops stopped firing immediately when they saw Jerome’s ‘hostage’. Jerome started laughing wildly as he shot at the cops.  
“Aaron, Greenwood, get the truck started” Jerome ordered, “We’re gonna blow this barbeque!”  
I hid a laugh behind a loud sob as Jerome kept shooting at Gordon. I wished I could shoot him myself. Or just shoot someone. I hadn’t done that in a long time. Eventually Jerome ran out of bullets and he gave the puppy man the order to ‘light em up!’ before he laughed his infamous laugh and ran off to the truck with me still playing hostage. He cackled as he hosed the outside of the bus in gasoline.  
I got into the truck and Jerome stood on the ledge of the door as he laughed maniacally. I’d missed him so much. Gordon grabbed the puppy man and the lighter fell to the floor and lit up the gasoline on the ground. I honestly couldn’t care less what happened to those idiots. I was alive. And I had Jerome back. There was nothing more that I could possibly want. He was mine once more.  
Jerome climbed swiftly back into the truck and pulled me towards the back. He hugged me tight before turning towards the others.  
“This is Y/n l/n.” he stated, “She’s my special friend. Stay away from her or I’ll kill ya!”  
I laughed and they all turned away uncomfortably. Jerome turned me to face him.  
“I missed ya, Y/n. What are the odds that I’d try to set fire to the exact bus you were on.” he laughed.  
I giggled and told him about what had happened to me since he’d been arrested. He laughed with me. He told me about the genius who broke him out of Arkham. I could see the others getting antsy as he told me details but they didn’t seem to want to interrupt. He also told me about each of the escapees and what they were put in Arkham for. A lot of them gave me the creeps. Especially the one who kept eyeing me in my cheerleading uniform like I was a piece of meat. I shivered slightly even though Jerome sitting so close was keeping me warm. He noticed my discomfort and glared at the man until he turned away.  
“You’ll like Theo. And I know that he’ll like you,” he announced with a grin.

Turns out Theo did like me. Supposedly Jerome had talked about finding me as soon as he was broken out of Arkham. About how we’d become friends at the circus. About how I’d murdered my parents and blamed it on my father’s right hand man. He seemed impressed. He thought the public would adore the idea of having Jerome and I working together as a pair: the prince and princess of Gotham.  
Barbara Keen, on the other hand, was not my biggest fan. I guess because we had the same gimmick yet I was a part of the Maniax now while she was still on the bench. Whenever I walked into a room, she’d turn to Tabitha and start whispering about me. It was pathetic but still humiliating; I felt like I was back with my old cheerleader buddies.  
I had to prove myself before becoming a part of the Maniax though. Theo Galavan had to test me first. He had a total stranger brought in: an innocent someone I had to kill. This was a new situation for me. I wasn’t killing someone whose life was meaningless like my parents or bitchy teenagers. This was a real, normal person who was going to die at my hands for no reason other than the sheer fun of it. And I revelled in it. I turned around to see Jerome grinning from ear to ear whilst Theo watched pensively. I turned back to look my victim in the eyes: she looked about forty and she had streams a tears gushing down her face as I pointed my gun at her. A grotesque smile clawed its way onto my lips as I pulled the trigger. The bullet went right through her heart and she was dead in an instant. Jerome clapped and cheered wildly as the body was taken from the room and Theo nodded approvingly at me. I was overjoyed as Jerome spun me around in a chaotic daze and congratulated me on making it into the gang.  
The next few days were a blissful blur of training and discussions for our next strike. I was staying in a room right next to Jerome and there wasn’t a moment where I wasn’t by his side. The evening of my initiation, everyone ate dinner together around Theo’s dining table. It almost felt like a family meal with Theo at one end of the table and Barbara at the other while Jerome and I sat nearest to Theo. The meal was a haze of stolen glances, swift grins and secret touches underneath the table between Jerome and I that Barbara felt the need to inform us made her sick to her stomach. That comment lead to Jerome throwing a hot potato at her face which ended with Theo holding Barbara back as she tried to stab him with her bread knife. It was wonderful.

That night was something else.  
After dinner, Jerome snuck into my room and kissed me fiercely.  
“We never did get to finish that evening in the woods” he said between kisses.  
I laughed and once again his tongue explored my mouth as I threaded my hands through his fiery hair. I really loved his hair. He lay me down on my bed and ripped his shirt off to expose his pale scrawny figure. I guess Arkham really hadn’t fed him well. His kisses moved from my mouth down to my neck. My shirt came off too as his kisses moved down to my chest and his hands ran up my cheerleading skirt. I gasped as he bit down on my shoulder in a way that would certainly leave a mark. He laughed before bringing his lips back up to mine. My hands moved to his pants where could feel his cock hard against my leg. He moaned as a rubbed him through his pants. I moved my hand slowly down his boxers but he quickly jerked away from me.  
I sat up to look at him but he was shaking his head angrily and threading hands through his messy hair.  
“Why’d you have to do that?” he yelled.  
I was about to apologise but I realised that he was talking to himself. I pulled him back to my bed to sit down next to me. He gripped me hand so tightly that it hurt.  
“Jerome, what’s wrong?” I asked quietly.  
“Nothing. Nothing” he replied quickly, “Let’s just go back to that shall we?”  
He tried to kiss me again but I gently pushed him off.  
“Jerome, stop.”  
He sat till for a moment before suddenly standing to face me. It was performance time.  
“Remember I told you about that dumb clown my mother fucked? Peter something?” he started.  
I nodded slowly as the memory resurfaced.  
“Yeah well he didn’t just wanna fuck my mom. He tried to fuck my too. And she did nothing” he said the end softly and I saw his eyes were glistening (with the ghosts of his past I’m sorry I can’t help it).  
“They’re all bastards.” I growled.  
He told me that they got him a psychiatrist at Arkham who made him relive all the memories of his childhood. He said that he’d tried to forget about it but now it just kept coming back. Instead of making him ‘sane’, they’d just made him more livid than before.  
“We can wait, Jerome.” I said quietly. “But I’ll fucking kill the man who did that.”  
Jerome scowled to himself but nodded.  
“I thought about fucking you a lot when I was in Arkham Y/n.” he stated, “I don’t understand why I was fine then but not now.”  
He had the grace to blush after he said that and I giggled at his declaration. I pulled him back so that we were once again sitting next to one another on the foot of the bed.  
“Will you at least stay here tonight?” I asked.  
He nodded and kissed me on the forehead as we both lay down. I fell asleep with his arms around me and a lightness in my chest that had been missing for a while now.

The next morning was when everyone was sitting together in Theo’s living room discussing what exactly our next move was. I was sitting on Jerome’s lap in an armchair and I have to say I wasn’t completely paying attention to Theo and more to the boy underneath me who kept nipping at my neck to distract me. His arms kept poking my stomach to make me laugh but I refused to give in and just squirmed in his arms while he tried to keep from laughing. Theo turned to give Jerome a disapproving look as if he were a father scolding his disobedient son. Jerome put on the mock face of mourning he’d used when the police had talked to him back at the circus before bursting in laughter. Barbara rolled her eyes at his antics. I just smiled softly before leaning back against Jerome.  
I could definitely get used to this kind of family in my life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like this is a good ending but if you lot have any suggestions I'd be happy to continue it.


End file.
